


A Confession And Two Reunions

by Xzeihoranth



Category: RWBY
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-06
Updated: 2017-12-06
Packaged: 2019-02-11 04:54:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12927897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xzeihoranth/pseuds/Xzeihoranth
Summary: Because there isn't enough love for Ilia, in-universe or in fandom, here's a what-if scenario in which Ilia felt more comfortable staying instead of running during the present-day stuff of Blake's V5 trailer.





	A Confession And Two Reunions

"It's not too late." Blake says. "You can leave the White Fang, like I did."

Her old comrade's skin is green. Everything else is blue. "Yes it is." she whispers. "But it's not too late for you. Leave Menagerie. You and your...friend."

"He's _barely_ a friend!" She doesn't know why she's angry. "I left them behind-" Now she does.

"It's become a habit for you, huh?"

Blake knows she deserves the bitterness in Ilia's voice. It still hurts, but she deserves it. She always does.

Ilia sighs. She lowers her weapon. "If you won't leave, at least- At least give me the Scroll he took."

"I don't have it with me. Do you think I'd be stupid enough to bring it?"

"You were stupid enough to follow me all by yourself." Ilia says.

Blake stiffens. She draws her weapon.

"No, it's okay." Ilia says. "We are alone. Your target's long gone."

Blake tries to relax. She keeps Gambol Shroud in her hand.

"He's just a patriot. Like we used to be." Ilia's eyes fill with tears. She takes a step closer. "I _missed_ you."

"I missed you too." Blake says. She doesn't lower her weapon.

"I wish..." Ilia says. "I wish we could go somewhere and just forget about all this for a while." She takes another step forward.

Blake takes two steps back. "Stay away." Blake warns her.

"Blake, I'm not going to hurt you. I promise." A tear breaks free and slips down her cheek. " _Please._ "

"I'm not safe for you to be around." Blake says. "Not just because we're on opposite sides." Her hand is shaking.

Ilia notices. _She always noticed the little things,_ Blake reflects. "Put it away, before you hurt yourself." She reaches out. Blake's arm snaps up. Ilia flinches, but she keeps going. She rests the tips of her fingers on Blake's arm.

Blake stiffens at her touch. Gambol Shroud falls from her nerveless hand. She falls back against a wall. "Please. Please don't hurt them. Don't hurt them. Please."

Ilia kneels down to retrieve Blake's weapon. She looks up and gasps. "You're hurt!"

Blake's brought her hands up to cover her face. Her coat has fallen away. There's an ugly looking scar on her stomach.

Ilia drops Gambol Shroud again as she stands up. "What happened?" She probes the scar gently. It looks like it's only recently healed. "Blake, what happened to you?"

Blake doesn't respond.

Ilia doesn't think she can.

Ilia picks up Gambol Shroud again, sliding it back into its sheath. "I know a safehouse we can go to. Is that okay?"

Blake shakes her head.

"Blake, we can't stay here. Someone might hear us. Someone might think I'm double-dealing with you." Something in the way Blake continues to recoil from her makes Ilia stop before she tries to touch her like she wants to. "I'm not going to hurt you. Talk to me. Please."

Seconds pass. Ilia sees her skin's turned purple. _That's a new one._ The alley they're in is so quiet Ilia can hear Blake's heart pounding loudly in her chest. She can feel her own doing the same, and not just because she's so close to Blake again after all this time.

Finally Blake lowers her arms. "I won't fight you." she says. "Do whatever you want."

 _I want to_ kiss _you you beautiful idiot!_ Luckily Ilia manages to keep from saying that out loud. "I want to take you to the safehouse. Okay? There shouldn't be anyone else there right now."

Blake nods.

Ilia leads the way. _I hope she likes the view,_ she finds herself thinking. _Kuo Kuana is beautiful this time of year._

It takes her a while to realize that maybe she hadn't been thinking of Kuo Kuana at all.

 

* * *

 

Blake is leaning against a wall. She's not saying a word.

Some things have changed with time. Other things haven't. Ilia knows when Blake wants someone else to start the conversation.

"Um..." Ilia says. _Great start, idiot._ "I love your new outfit." _Is that too forward? Am I being too forward? I shouldn't be trying to fall in love with her. Or maybe I should. Maybe that's the way into her confidences- No! Focus on HER, not the Fang!_

"Thanks." Blake says.

_Oh fuck it. I've been keeping this for years. I might never get another chance to say it._

"I love you."

Blake looks up. "Huh?"

Ilia winces. "I mean, I'm- I'm IN love with you. I'm a lesbian. I'm in lesbian love with you." Her skin turns pink all over. Even the spots.

Blake is staring at her. "What?"

"I have been for years. I remember when you started making eyes at Adam. I remember how much it hurt. I remember how much I wanted you to make those eyes at _me_." Ilia can't meet Blake's eyes any more. She looks out the slats in the door. "Eventually, I...tried to learn to live with it. To live with the fact that you didn't feel the same way about me. And then you left." Her skin is the bluest blue she can think of. She knows it is. "It was easier when you weren't around. But now, you're _here_ , and- You're on the wrong side-"

"You're on the wrong side! Adam _stabbed me!_ He almost killed Yang! That's why I left!"

Ilia turns. "He what?"

Blake wraps her arms around herself. "That scar. The one you saw. He gave it to me. When he attacked Beacon. Yang- My partner- She tried to save me. He cut off her arm. I could see it in his face. He wanted to cut off more. So I ran. First I ran _with her_ , then I ran AWAY from her..."

Ilia's mind races. _Adam hurt her? Hurt her partner? She has a partner? What kind of partner?_

Blake is still talking. "I wanted to protect her. He-" She looks up. "He _swore_ that he would destroy everything I love. So I ran." She takes a shuddering breath. "That's why you're not safe with me."

"With you?" Ilia isn't having any luck processing things. "You're coming back?"

Suddenly Blake steps forward. She seizes Ilia's face in her hands and kisses her. Ilia's mind gives up racing like the hare and decides to take up the other half of the fable: the turtle. It's plodding along, turning over every fact in its way.

_Blake's lips are soft. They taste nice. They taste like saltwater. But she doesn't swim. She can swim, but she doesn't like to. She wasn't swimming. Was she crying?_

Ilia feels something brush against her cheek. She tries looking down without breaking the kiss.

 _She_ is _crying_ , she decides.

Blake pulls away. She opens her eyes. "Come back with me." she whispers. "The White Fang is dangerous. It's going about things the wrong way."

"What's the right way?" Ilia says. She's staring at Blake's lips. They look a little swollen. Ilia wants to make them more swollen.

"We can find out together." Blake says. She holds out a hand. "I don't want to abandon you again."

Ilia speaks words without consciously looking for them. "I don't know what just happened. I don't know what's- What's _going_ to happen." She reaches out halfway to where Blake's hand is waiting for her, then hesitates. "But if it's with you, I know it'll be all right." she says.

She smiles.

Blake smiles.

Ilia puts her hand in Blake's.

 

* * *

 

Many months after that, with the Albains banished to a prison in the desert of Menagerie, Ilia is there when Blake finds her team again.

She's not there when Blake and her partner talk for hours alone in a room. She's busy trying not to scream at the heiress of the Schnee Dust Company. It takes time for them to get along.

Just as it takes time for Blake and her partner to get along.

During that time, Ilia finds herself wanting to get to know the woman who risked life and limb for someone she couldn't have known for long.

They talk for hours, usually by themselves. Yang seems genuinely interested in who Ilia is. Ilia can hardly believe it.

She can hardly believe it when she ends up kissing Yang after a particularly painful discussion about the Fall of Beacon.

She _can_ believe it, however, when Blake and Yang kiss in front of everyone. She should have known it would only be temporary.

 _We did good together,_ she thinks as she watches Yang break down crying ('like a goober', she says). _I'll try and be happy for them._

She's back to not believing when Blake and Yang hold out their hands to her. "Ilia," they say, slightly off-beat. They laugh.

Ilia laugh.

She runs into their embrace.

They shower her with kisses, and she tries to do the same to them. With all the tears she's crying, it's not an easy task.

She makes sure to even the score when they all go to bed later.

**Author's Note:**

> Sped through that ending stuff huh? Kept it as vague as possible, because I don't need another AU to work with!


End file.
